Wednesday, October 30, 2013

On October 8th, Stone Temple Pilots released the five-song High Rise EP, which featured the band's first post-Scott Weiland recordings. With Linkin Park's Chester Bennington now fronting STP, the remaining original members, Eric Kretz and brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo, hope to breathe new life into the band.

I caught up with Bennington (whose other band Linkin Park have just released their Recharged album) to talk about the epic collaboration, and the music that's more than worthy of STP's legacy that it's already spawned.

Friday, October 25, 2013

It's impossible to pin down Clive Barker, the man who created the iconic Pinhead character. The multi-faceted and irrepressible filmmaker, video game designer, artist, and author travels through different mediums and genres with the kind of ease that a shapeshifter might exchange forms. Take, for example, his current diverse slate of creative output. He's recently released anniversary editions of two of his most popular novels: Weaveworld and Cabal, which respectively reside towards opposite ends of the fantasy/horror spectrum (something that Barker envisions as a boundaryless continuum). Meanwhile he's writing his next adult novel and applying paint to canvas for two more installments of his popular Abarat all ages adventure, which is told in words and pictures. A new comic series, New Testament, came out earlier this year, which Barker produced with Mark Miller, who also serves as his editor and the Vice President of his production company, Seraphim. And Barker is currently presenting an art exhibition at Culver City's Century Guild in association with the gallery's founder and owner Thomas Negovan. Entitled Grand-Guignol, the group show will feature Barker's paintings alongside other works he's curated with Negovan. In addition, on Saturday the Beyond Fest will present a special screening at Hollywood's Egyptian Theater of the Cabal Cut of Night Breed, which sees Barker's cult classic film restored to a form that more closely resembles his original vision and the book upon which it was based.

On a recent edition of SuicideGirls Radio, the British born and internationally acclaimed master of multiple light and dark arts joined us by phone from his Beverly Hills home to talk about the varied proverbial irons he's keeping warm with his creative fire.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Like National Public Radio, Back to the Future 2, Daniel Day Lewis, Sunsets, and Farrah Fawcett Hair, Capital Cities' debut album In A Tidal Wave of Mystery, which was released in June of this year, is good shit. The funky and fun band was formed after founding members Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian were united via a Craigslist ad back in 2008. The duo had a successful career composing jingles before releasing their first tunes under the Capital Cities moniker in 2011.

The self-titled five-song EP came out via indie label Lazy Hooks. It featured the quirky yet highly infectious track "Safe and Sound" which did the rounds on the interwebs before being picked up by the likes of Vodafone, Smart Car, Microsoft, and HBO. Following the viral success of the song, Capital Cities acquired additional members (bassist Manny Quintero, trumpeter Spencer Ludwig, guitarist Nick Merwin, and drummer Channing Holmes) and hit the road, building an avid following of fans, who, to complete the feedback loop, were invited to contribute voicemailed vocals about their favorite things for the song "Farrah Fawcett Hair."

I caught up with Sebu Simonian to talk about the album and the band's upcoming tour.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Paradise is Diablo Cody's fourth full-length feature film, but her first as both a writer and director, and is perhaps her most gloriously entertaining endeavor to date.

The film tells the story of Lamb Mannerheim (played by Julianne Hough), a young girl from a highly religious small town in Montana who has a crisis of faith after she loses her fiancé and is badly burned in a horrific plane crash. Scarred inside and out, she denounces her belief in God in the most spectacular of ways - in front of her parents (Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman), family, friends, neighbors, and entire community - from the pulpit of her local church during a sermon in which she was supposed to announce a substantial gift from her multi-million dollar settlement check. Instead, she takes herself and her windfall off to the Devil's playground, otherwise known as Las Vegas.

On a mission to seek out the worldly pleasures she's missed out on, she befriends a lascivious and licentious barman named William (Russell Brand) and his cohort, a nightclub singer named Loray (Octavia Spencer). Though running away from God and the narrow-minded morals of her hometown, Lamb's spiritual journey through Paradise, Nevada (where the Las Vegas Strip technically resides) ultimately helps her find herself.

This is no heavy-handed morality/immorality tale however. Thanks to Cody's wonderfully witty script, intelligent observations, and sharp direction, and the comedic talents of her incredible cast, Paradise is enlightening in more ways than one. I caught up with Cody recently to talk about the film.